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Hogan Stinks~ Love him but boy oh boy..any thoughts?

Greetings All,

I did a search here and Im having a hard time figuring out why Hogan smells so *musky* Maxwell has never had a tearing or staining problem...so This is a new one for me. I notice Hogans Eyes smell and his mouth smells....Heck, he just smells. *lol*

Ive read that there is confilcting info about this, Some say its food related...some say add Cider Vinager to the water...some say wipe Cider Vinager under the eye with a qtip, some say add baking ingrediance to the Food, Im just at a loss as to what to do or what to try...and even if he forever remains stinky Ill love him all the same....

I had planned on Changing him over to Wellness, slowley..however hes got a case of the runnys right now and is on medication for that~ so I really dont want to make any changes to his diet till Hes firmed up...Any suggestions, Idea or Directions are greatly appreciated.

Im interested in hearing what has worked for all of you ...it seems this is a common problem with Cavs.
Dawn

A Good Attitude is like Kudzu~ It spreads quickly and never stops growing.......

Nope, he doesnt have an ear infection...This smell is associated with the actual tearing ...and I do believe it may have something to do with Diet?

Karlin, I know you mentioned in a prior post that there isnt any solid research that it is associated with diet however It seems that some people have had luck with change in Brands of food? What are your thoughts on this?

A Good Attitude is like Kudzu~ It spreads quickly and never stops growing.......

There's lots of anecdotal opinion and not much in the line of actual research. Some people think if you feed yeast this causes yeasty eyes but this makes no sense to me -- yeast when eaten is thoroughly digested and doesn't get passed out the tear ducts! Hence my scepticism that this has anything to do with diet. Leo, Lily and Jaspar are fed the exact same thing. Jaspar has almost no tearing, Leo has moderate tearing, and Lily has a lot of tearing (and Lily has a really tiny head and quite prominent eyes). Jaspar and Leo had a lot more when young. Hence I tend to agree with breeder Laura Lang who things the skull 'fits' better as the dog gets older and hence tearing is more common in non-adults and often disappears in adults.

Also prominent eyes in any breed generally produce more tearing, and small breeds in which the eyes have to fit into a reduced size skull also have tearing, which to me all correlates to size, shape of skull, shape of eyes, and maturity as reasons for tearing. Also genes, perhaps most importantly genes.

I think diet could produce more tearing if the dog has some allergy to ingredients perhaps. I personally just don't think feeding buttermilk powder, cream cheese, a totally raw diet, a given kibble, sea meal, yoghurt...all of which have been said to solve tearing -- will affect the problem. Leo used to get his twice daily pills in cream cheese and it made no difference to his tearing. Nor did raw diets. Hence my additional scepticism on thie diet front.

If the musky smell seems to be the eyes, it could well be that smell that comes from the red yeast that starts to grow in damp fur. Even water on a cotton pad used to wipe the fur gently daily around the eyes will significantly help this -- though you can also buy products for this or use Renu contact lens solution or any of the all-in-one solutions that can go in the eye (don't put it in the eye, but means it is safe for wiping around the eye).

I used to have to clean the dogs' eye area all the time from tears and now I almost never have to do this so age seems to have been the thing for mine.

PS Lily likes to lick Leo's eyes and he likes this so that has probably helped Leo too!

Otherwise I'd have his anal glands checked or wonder if he is getting hold of something like cat feces to eat as feces will really scent the breath unpleasantly.

Both of mine eat the exact same thing. Shelby's right eye tears. I've had her checked and there is nothing wrong with her eye. And it's just her right eye. It's also something that comes and goes. She also has "buggy" eyes compared to Jake...if that has anything to do with it.

Holly's head is quite small, and she tears a lot. Trouble is, she's B/T so it's not as obvious as it is when it's a parti, so I forget to wipe them every day I notice when I do though that it doesn't take long for the tearing to start up again.

India used to have smelly eyes, and she was treated for an eye infection when I showed her vet.

Then I started putting one Refresh Tears (Allergan over the counter) eye drop into each eye every day or so, plus every 2 weeks or so I put Renu contact solution on a cotton ball and wipe under her eyes. I also wipe under her eyes as needed with warm water and a cotton ball, then blot dry with a kleenex.

This is probably really silly but my vet said that a couple of her cav owners have had reasonable success with feeding purified drinking water - bottled or filtered. She said it doesn't make sense but she has seen it work to lessen the tearing. I think it sounds silly but I guess you never know!?